It’s hard for a team to win when it strikes out 12 times. Syracuse East did just that on Friday.

Facing Syracuse West’s ace, Nate Boughton, East managed just three hits, but edged West, 3-2, in a league match up with strong pitching and timely hitting.

After struggling for the first five innings, East broke out for three runs in the sixth with timely hitting from the middle of the order. East coach Mike Meola says it’s hard to duplicate Boughton’s quality breaking pitches.

“His curveball is above average, and right now we struggle with that,” he said. “We can’t duplicate that throwing BP. When he’s sneaky fast with the curve you have to have better approaches with two strikes.”

With a struggling offense, East’s pitching kept it close. Ben Atkinson, making his first varsity start, pitched five innings while allowing just one run on two hits while walking three and striking out four.

“He’s our third starter and we couldn’t ask for anything more,” Meola said. “He didn’t have his good curveball today, but he gutted it out and kept us in the game.”

Atkinson was left with the no decision, but timely hitting and strong relief appearances from Joe DiBello and Damon Ozelek bailed him out of the loss.

DiBello allowed a run in the sixth inning, but picked up the win after his offense scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Ozelek came in for the save with a perfect seventh inning.

“Joe DiBello is a kid that is not a pitcher by trade, but will do whatever he can to help this team,” Meola said. “The minute we took the lead we came in with Ozelek, who is a very good pitcher, who got the save for us.”

With a young team this season, East relies on senior Jeff Belge. Belge, who has verbally committed to play at St. John’s, is going to be the key this season—both at the plate and on the mound—Meola says.

“He’s been through it,” he said. “He’s going to have to help us. With 13 guys, everybody has to play and help out. He’s going to have to play a big part and I expect some big things from him at the plate.”

With Belge, DiBello and Atkinson rounding out a strong pitching staff, Meola says his team can be a dangerous one once it figures things out at the plate.

“If our pitching stays like it has we can be pretty good,” he said. "Right now there isn’t one dominate team. If you can get some good pitching with timely hitting you can do some damage in this league and that’s what we keep telling our kids.”